Los Angeles Lakers: 3 players who may not be around in 2018-19

3. Luol Deng

Let’s be honest — every effort will be made this offseason to move Luol Deng. The Lakers have plenty of reasons to move on from one of the most overpaid players in the NBA. The obvious problem here is that no one wants to take on his albatross of a contract.

Deng still has two years and $36.8 million (via Spotrac.com) left on his deal. As tempting as it is to trade for a player who can’t even earn minutes with the Lakers, there haven’t been any takers up to this point. Unless Magic Johnson is willing to part with too many assets, chances are a deal isn’t going to materialize to clear up that cap space for Los Angeles.

Luckily for the Lakers, there’s an alternative: the stretch provision. It’s not as effective as a trade would be in terms of creating cap space, but it would provide some immediate relief. By using this provision, Los Angeles could spread the remainder of Deng’s cap hit over twice the remaining length of his contract, plus one year — five years, basically.

Again, there are pros and cons to taking this approach. While it clears some cap space for the 2018 offseason, it does come with more long-term financial constraints. If Magic believes a win-now approach can make this team a contender, though, the stretch provision makes perfect sense.

It’s no guarantee the Lakers find a route to part ways with him this offseason. However, stretching his contract seems like the best option moving forward, as I “boldly” predicted would happen.